


The Storm

by Silverkleptofox



Series: Letters from Camp [2]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians
Genre: Fluff, Hurt!Nico, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Migraine, Summer weekends series, solangelo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-25
Updated: 2016-08-25
Packaged: 2018-08-10 21:47:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,091
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7862365
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Silverkleptofox/pseuds/Silverkleptofox
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After all this time, Zeus still isn't very fond of the son of his brother, Hades. Nico is reminded of this every time it storms.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Storm

**Author's Note:**

> This study was inspired by a headcanon of ask-will-and-Nico, on tumblr. Go check out their blog! This story was written with their permission.

"Since when does it rain at Camp-Half blood?" Nico said disdainfully as he trudged out of his cabin. The skies were clouded over, and he could feel the moisture in the air. Nico sighed as he sullenly stepped down from the porch of cabin thirteen. 

Will was waiting for him, as he always was on Saturday mornings after his return from spending the week in the underworld. "The nymphs missed a light shower while you were gone during the week, so they've scheduled a downpour today; to keep the strawberry fields alive."

Nico rolled his eyes. "Great." He could feel the pressure building up behind them already. As long as it was just a shower without thunder or lightning, he could probably deal with it. He could only hope.

\----

He had no such luck. Rain drizzled over the fields and forests lightly, bringing rock climbing and archery to a halt. Nico found himself bored and miserable, so he made his way to the infirmary to help out. 

Will's face lit up to see Nico step in, and Nico responded with an awkward smile that was more of a sneer, but Will loved it just the same. 

"How are you doing?" Will asked as Nico threw himself into a spinny chair and lounged over it, his head hanging back over the armrest. He groaned noncommittally in response. Will chuckled, chalking it up to Nico being in one of his moods, but when thunder rumbled in the distance, and Nico leaned forward to clutch his temples, Will changed his diagnosis.

He padded softly to the desk where Nico was sprawled in his chair, and gently carded his fingers through Nico's thick, black hair. Nico leaned into the touch with a groan. "Are you okay?" 

Nico hummed deep in his throat. "Just a headache. I'm fine." He rasped. Will hummed. "Do you want some Tylenol?" 

Nico looked at him, confused.

Oh, right. He was from the 40's, Tylenol hasn't been released yet. "Painkillers." Will clarified. Nico groaned and slumped further into his chair, his hand held out. Will sighed fondly and shook two pills into his palm. Nico popped them back with a gulp and Will pressed a cup of water into his boyfriend's hands before continuing to make his rounds. If Nico wanted to sit in his spinny chair and mope, so be it. It was better than running himself into the ground in the arena. 

Will continued stacking trays of bandages and disinfectant as the rain pattered against the windows of the big house. Then the room lit up as lightning flashed outside, less than a mile away, and thunder rolled.

"Ugghhhhhhhh owww..." Came a low moan from Will's desk. He turned and saw Nico hunched over in his chair, cradling his head in his hands. Concerned, Will shuffled over carefully and knelt before his boyfriend. He looked up at Nico's pained face, his eyes scrunched tight and his lips set in a thin line. He reached up to run his fingers through Nico's hair once more, sensing for any injuries- there were none, but he felt pain, a lot of pressure and pain - the beginnings of what might be a migraine. 

"You wanna tell me what's really going on?" Will said gently, his fingers softly scratching Nico's scalp. 

"Zeus isn't fond of me." Nico sighed. "Storms give me a headache. His own personal form of torture." He said dramatically. 

Will nodded. "Like how Percy isn't allowed to fly." Nico hummed in affirmation. Thunder rumbled outside and Nico went stiff under his fingers, clenching his hands in his hair.

"Hey, hey." Will soothed, loosening Nico's fingers and smoothing the rumpled locks beneath. "How can I help?"

"Unless you can stop the storm, you can't. Just have to wait it out." Nico grumbled. 

"Can't do anything about that." Will whispered. He took Nico's head in his hands and kissed his brow before standing. "I've got spare beds here if you feel like lying down. I'll try to keep this area quiet for you." He whispered. 

Nico gave him a weary thumbs-up and went back to grasping his temples. There was only so much Will could do for him, and he appreciated the effort, even if he was in too much pain to show it. 

\----

Nico muddled through the day in anguish. When dinner time rolled around, he found himself shuffling through the pavilion to scrape part of his plate into the fire for Hades, and had to resist the urge to curse Zeus while he was at it. Cursing his uncle would probably only make his situation worse. He folded himself onto the bench at the Apollo table between Will and Austin and set down his meager dinner. Will raised a concerned eyebrow at the contents of his plate, which consisted of a bread roll and some pasta.

"Nauseous." Nico muttered by way of explanation, and Will decided not to press the subject. Thunder rolled in the distance and Nico groaned softly, cradling his aching temples with one hand and grasping at the table with the other. 

Austin shot Will a concerned look over Nico's head, but Will dismissed it. He pressed his finger to his lips to warn his half-brother of the need for quiet. 

"Not getting any better?" Will asked softly, mindful of his volume. He wished he could take away Nico's pain, but if it was a curse personally placed upon him by Zeus, there was nothing he could do except try to make his boyfriend more comfortable. 

Nico swallowed thickly, his eyes screwed shut. "Every time..." He gasped, "...it gets worse. Every strike..." 

"Since this morning?"

Nico nodded once, then winced and was still. Will reached over to lightly shake a couple of pills into Nico's hand, as he was due for another dose. Nico swallowed them dry and groaned.

He picked at his dinner solemnly, managing only a few bites between rolls of thunder, and Will graciously didn't pester him about the lack of vegetables. Now was not the time. 

That's when the storm picked up. A loud thunk sounded against the tiled roof of the pavilion- probably a tree branch that had been knocked loose. Nico took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. The doors burst open- the wind knocking them on their hinges as rain poured in. Satyrs and campers rushed to close them, but Will could see just how bad the storm had become. There was no way they were leaving the pavilion until it eased up. 

Suddenly a huge boom echoed throughout the walls, and Nico cried out in pain, clutching his head for dear life as he hunched over in his seat. His fork clattered on the stone floor. Austin and Will's hands hovered over Nico's back, wanting to comfort him but unsure if they should- Nico was breathing much too fast, in and out through his clenched teeth. He waited until Nico calmed, adjusting to the new level of pain. 

Nico's eyes finally opened, but something was wrong. He stared blankly at the table before him, looking confused. His gaze wandered right, then left, not focusing on anything, his eyes growing wider. He reached out aimlessly to his left, and Will caught his hand in his own, gently thumbing the back of it.

"Will, I ..." Nico choked, "I can't _see..._ "

This was _not_ good. Will had heard of migraine blindness before, but had never seen it in person. If Nico's brain was under so much pressure that he couldn't see...

"Will, I need to get out of here." He moaned softly.

Austin frowned. "The storm is too bad right now, we can't leave until it clears."

"I could shadow-travel us to Boston..."

"Absolutely not." Will interrupted, a bit too forcefully. Nico winced, and Will stroked his hand in apology. Shadow-traveling in his condition could end disastrously. Nico _did_ need a break from all this noise and light, however. He could feel the son of Hades trembling next to him. He met Austin's gaze and jerked his head towards a dark table at the end of the pavilion, away from everyone else. 

"C'mon, hold onto me." Will said as he stood, gently looping Nico's arm through his own. Austin stood at Nico's other side, hands hovering but not touching. "We're going to the Hades table, at least it's quieter there." 

Nico swallowed and followed. The three of them slowly made their way to the other side of the pavilion- Will hoped the seclusion and darkness would give Nico a much-needed reprieve, at least until the storm had passed. This poor child had suffered so much already at the hands of the gods- why did Zeus have to afflict him so? It wasn't fair. If Will had anything to say about it, he would-

 _ **BANG**_

Lightning crashed as the pavilion was hit directly, and Nico cried out and collapsed. One minute he was standing, arm looped in Will's, and the next his eyes rolled back in his head and he went boneless. Only Austin and Will's strong arms kept his head from shattering on the cool marble. 

"Fuck!" Will exclaimed, regaining his balance. 

"Oh shit..." Austin muttered as he adjusted his grip and held Nico more comfortably. Will rushed to his knees to check his boyfriend's vitals. His pulse was strong, his breathing shallow. He placed a hand on Nico's forehead to ascertain what he could. "He's just unconscious." He sighed with relief. This was _not_ good, passing out from a migraine was never a good sign, but at least Nico wasn't in pain. 

"Whoa." Austin said. "Can a migraine do that?"

"If it's bad enough." Will nodded, adjusting their grip to cradle Nico in his arms by himself. "This is the last straw. Get me Chiron, _now._ "

Austin scrambled to his feet and raced through the tables of shocked and concerned campers to the centaur, fearing the retribution of an angry head medic.

\--------

Nico felt two blessedly cold fingers on his neck as he returned to consciousness. His head still felt like it was in a vice, but it wasn't nearly as bad as before. His eyes fluttered open to darkness. He gasped, thinking he was still blind, then something clicked and a soft red glow came into view. 

"Sorry to wake you." He heard Will's voice gently whisper. "I was checking your pulse." 

Nico tilted his head upward to see Will's face looming over him. He realized that he was lying halfway on his side on something soft, his head pillowed in Will's lap. It was... _nice._

"What...?" Nico croaked, but then something soft and _very_ cold pressed into the stress points at his temples just so, and Nico's words were lost to a low moan of sweet relief. He felt Will chuckle beneath him.

"You passed out at dinner. We're in your cabin right now- the infirmary would be too bright. You've been out for about an hour." Will said softly. Gods, he was so good at his job. He knew exactly what to say to calm him and what timbre to speak in as to not aggravate Nico's headache. "After that, I _convinced_ Chiron to reschedule the storm for a weekday, when you're gone. No one is collapsing from pain because of something that can be rescheduled, that's ridiculous. Not on my watch." Will chided. "It's cleared up outside. Are you feeling any better?"

"Mm." Nico groaned. "Still hurts, not as much though. Whatever you're doing- don't stop. It helps." Something sloshed quietly near his head, and the cool pressure returned. Oh... It was Will. He was massaging his temples and the back of his neck with ice water. Gods that was brilliant. 

 

Nico lay there, breathing slowly, as Will traced his brow, his temples, down to behind his ears and the place where his neck met his skull, and up again with cool fingers, stopping to apply pressure where it was needed, but his hands never left Nico completely. He would lift one while the other worked, and it would return cold, just as the other lifted, in a constant stream of comfort. Nico could feel little rivulets of water trace paths down his face, bringing blessed relief and distracting him from the pain. 

It still _hurt,_ beneath Will's skilled fingers and the healing spell he could feel being woven over him- Will couldn't remove the pain of Zeus' curse, but he could lessen it, and Nico could bear it. 

He supposed, lying there, that with his own personal sun around, maybe a storm wasn't so awful after all.


End file.
